ChefVille Guide

ChefVille is one of the most addictive and popular games on Facebook. It revolves around managing a restaurant, which includes everything from choosing the layout of your building, to the finer details of recipe crafting and ingredient production.

Zynga have produced it and, in keeping with all of their other games, there is a lot of depth available if you are willing to invest time (and money) in the game. You will also need plenty of friends playing to be able to progress after more than a few sessions as chef.

Getting Started

As explained above, the general idea with ChefVille is to manage your own restaurant. You start out with just a small building and a plot of land to grow a few vegetables. To produce food that you would actually want to serve people, you essentially select the device to make it with, such as an oven, and then all of the ingredients necessary. This allows you to be creative but allows a lot of depth when you factor in all the tools at your disposal to craft delicious food.

Unlike some other restaurant-themed games, you don't do much interacting with the customers in ChefVille - you are the Chef, not the maitre d' after all - instead food is placed on counters and served to people by your waiter.

At the top of the screen you will see the following options:

Free Gifts - Click here to see what Free Gifts are currently on offer for playing ChefVille. Often the more you play, the better the gifts will get.

Play - Select this option to return to the main game screen.

Add Neighbors - Use this link to add some of your Facebook friends into your game. You will be able to visit their restaurants and earn yourelf rewards for doing so.

Add Cash and Coins - Here you can purchase Cash and Coins, two of ChefVille's currencies, using real world money.

Earn Cash - This is a useful link which allows you to earn Cash, which you would otherwise have to pay for, by completing surveys, participating in offers, and fulfilling certain other criteria that Zynga set out for you. It is not really possible to succeed at the game just by doing these tasks to get Cash, but it is a start, nonetheless.

Below this you can see the currencies and balances that you have available in ChefVille. These are Coins, Cash, Hearts and Recommendations.

Coins

Coins are the main currency in ChefVille. They are used to purchase the vast majority of items, such as equipment, supplies and decorations - they are also used in the important task of unlocking new areas.

How to earn Coins:

To earn Coins, the main method is to simply serve the patrons and customers that come into your restaurant. This is the point of ChefVille, and so the Coins system is tailored towards making you do this.

TIP: Every time you prepare food, your waiter will automatically serve it to customers. You, however, are able to click to manually serve the food yourself. This rewards you with more Coins, although it does cost Energy. Nonetheless, you should bear this in mind if you are in need of extra Coins.

TIP: Remember that your ChefVille waiter will continue to serve people while you are away from the game. Before you go to bed or if you are going to be away from Facebook for any period of time, try to prepare lots of dishes and stockpile food for your customers. Your waiter is employed to keep the food coming out to the dining room and, once you log back in, you will receive all the money for the orders completed in your time away from the game.

Visiting your Friends is a great way to earn Coins. Although the main reason for your visit may be a simple social call, or to collect some of the ingredients that can only be gained through visiting neighbors, it is also a good idea to pick up some Coins while you are there. To do this, you are able to assist your Friends in their daily struggles. You can help each ChefVille friend 5 times per day, with each action earning you Coins. If you think that you can help each Friend 5 times, then for people with a lot of Friends playing ChefVille you can really get the Coins flooding in.

One of the most obvious ways to earn Coins and indeed to progress generally at ChefVille is to complete the goals that the game sets out for you. These appear on the left-hand side of the screen and reward you with a variety of presents - XP and Coins are the main ones, but you often receive ingredients and other items too.

Although this should be a last resort for most gamers, you can simply buy your Coins with Cash. See below for more about Cash, but essentially it is a premium currency that you physically buy using real-world money.

Cash

Cash is the premium currency in ChefVille. Like in many other Facebook and Zynga games, it allows you to gain special items, rush through things that you would otherwise have to wait for, and purchase things like ingredients, Roses and to pay for staff members instead of having to rely on Friends.

How to earn Cash:

You are given a small amount of Cash at the start of a new game of ChefVille, but this will not last you very long at all. In fact, you will want to find other means of collecting Cash or will probably be forced to fork out your own money to progress at the game. Probably the best way to do this is to look at the 'Earn Cash' link at the top of your Facebook window. This allows you to fill in surveys and participate in offers in order to get your hands on the elusive Cash.

The first thing you will need to do is create your Chef. The options are fairly detailed - you can choose gender, skin color, hair styles, clothes and even expressions! You can change your appearance at any time so don't worry too much about getting it perfect on your first go.

The game will introduce you to Chef Madeline. She is your guide through the first few tutorial sections in ChefVille. These involve picking ingredients, outfitting your first restaurant with new seating areas, and exploring the town.

Ingredients

When you first start playing ChefVille, ingredients won't seem that important. You have Tomato plants outside your restaurant and can gather Mushrooms and Onions from the surrounding area too. It all seems fairly simple. However, as you attempt more complex dishes and try to serve more and more customers, you will find Energy a limiting factor in how many ingredients you can pick. Not only this, but ingredients have to ripen before you can pick them. This means that there is a cooldown time required after every time you harvest a particular ingredient - not everything is always going to be available, and you have to plan accordingly around this.

Wild Ingredients:

The easiest set of ingredients to collect are those that grow wild throughout the game. You can get these as soon as you begin. They include Wild Onions and Wild Mushrooms. Like other ingredients, they are replenished through patience if you wait around long enough.

Shelf Ingredients and Plants:

The Shelf Ingredients and Plants are those which are found in shelf spaces or are grown outside. These include Tomato Plants, Bread Baskets and the Cheese Display. Again, they are collected like Wild Ingredients and are refreshed over time, which varies depending on the importance of that particular ingredient.

TIP: A good tip to getting more Wild Onions and Mushrooms is to edit the floor around your restaurant to remove sidewalks and move other objects closer together. This will allow more grass to be in place and so facilitate more wild ingredients growing. To do this, select the Edit Floor option and you will then be able to move things round to your heart's content.

Trees:

Trees in ChefVille are yet another way to get ingredients for use in recipes and dishes that you can serve your customers. You can buy Trees from the store section. Unlike other ingredient resources, there is a limit on the number of times that you can harvest a Tree. Many Trees require you to have a certain number of Mastery Stars before they will unlock. Below you can see a guide to all the Trees in ChefVille:

Apple Tree:
This requires 134 Master Stars

Lemon Tree:
This needs 130 Master Stars. It can be harvested 4 times and takes 8 minutes to refill.

Orange Tree:
This requires 30 Mastery Stars. It gives a total of 3 harvests, and takes 5 minutes to refill.

Lime Tree:
The Lime Tree refills every 30 minutes, and requires you to complete the 'Brunch Savior' goal.

Avocado Tree:
This tree needs 156 Mastery Stars before it will unlock.

Staffed Houses:

Certain ingredients you can only reliably get from staffed houses or businesses. These either require you to recruit friends to help you manage them, or to spend Cash to put AI characters in the role. Once the building is fully staffed, you are able to collect from it as normal, again waiting a set amount of time for the items to replenish.

Gifts:

You are able to give gifts of ingredients to your friends, and also request them. They are completely free to give, so there really is no reason not to. Plus, the more you gift to your friends, the more likely they are to return the favor!

TIP: You are often able to ask for ingredients when you are in the cooking menu.

Friends:

When visiting friends, you are able to collect ingredients from the dishes in their restaurants. Click on them or on the ingredients in their garden and you have a moderate change of receiving some ingredients as rewards.

TIP: Try to focus on items that you actually or those that take a long time to refresh rather than just picking at random.
TIP: Leave and return to the same restaurant and you can collect the same ingredient multiple times.

You will also occasionally receive ingredients like Salt, Pepper and varieties of meat as rewards for visiting friends in ChefVille. Certainly, the game tries to massively encourage the social side of things.

Cash Purchased Ingredients:

As with most things in ChefVille, you are able to buy ingredients directly using Cash. If you are desperate to get a certain ingredient for a particular dish, then this is an option. But in reality, you can get everything you need for free by playing the game and requesting from Friends.

TIP: If you do choose to purchase ingredients using Cash, you should focus on those that are rarest and that take the longest amount of time to refresh.

Raw Ingredient List:

Below is a basic list of the ingredients you will have to use to make other dishes:

Tomato:
To get a Tomato, use a Tomato Plant. It takes 2 Minutes before it will be refreshed.

Wheat Bread:
To produce Wheat Bread, you need to use the Bread Rack. It takes 6 minutes to refresh.

Wild Onion:
You can find Wild Onion where you might expect...in the wild. It grows outside your restaurants. You can also buy Wild Onions using 30 Hearts.

Wild Button Mushrooms:
These are wild, like the onions. They can also be bought with 30 Hearts.

TIP: Although it may seem like you have too many Mushrooms, once you unlock the Veggimatic you will come across recipes that use heaps of them.

Flour:
Flour is a basic ingredient that refreshes in 4 minutes.

Mozzarella:
You can pick this up from the Mozzarella Stand. It takes 10 minutes to completely refresh.

Sirloin Beef:
You can get this lovely cut of beef from the Mom 'n Pop Shop. It is reproduced every 5 minutes and requires 2 Staff to unlock.

Milk:
This is collected from the Milk Truck. It will replenish in 7 minutes as long as you have 3 Staff on hand.

Romaine Lettuce:
You can get this from the Lettuce Stall. It refreshes 5 minutes.

Mixed Greens:
Mixed Greens are collected from Flowers - they can be picked up every 10 minutes.

Broccoli:
Find Broccoli at the Broccoli Stall. It reproduces every 8 minutes, requiring 2 Staff.

Garlic:
Garlic is collected from the Garlic Stall. It can be picked up again after 5 minutes, as long as you have 3 Staff members.

Free Range Chicken:
You can find Free Range Chicken in the Chicken Store. It takes 5 minutes to get more. You need 4 Staff to be able to collect it.

Free Range Turkey:
Free Range Turkey is picked up from the Turkey Freezer. You can do this every 5 minutes, but bear in mind it takes 4 Staff before it becomes available.

Salt:
The only way to get Salt is to visit a Neighbor - this will reward you with the condiment.

Pepper:
The same as Salt, visit a Neighbor more and you will be rewarded with this once-previous spice.

Roses:
You can collect Roses from the Rose Stand every 8 hours. You are also able to request it from Friends.

Carrots:
Carrots are unlocked once you reach 250 Mastery Stars.

Eggs:
To get Eggs, you first have to unlock the Homestead area. To get that, unlock Greens Market along with either Unexplored Land with Orange Trees or Romance Pond. You can also unlock Romand Pond and Hot Spot to get to tthe Homestead. You can then collect Eggs from the Chicken Coop. You can also sometimes get Eggs from clicking on Friends' prepared dishes at their restaurants. 

Crafted Ingredients:

There are some ingredients in ChefVille which you actually have to craft before you can use them. You can see a list of these and the component ingredients required to produce the final ingredient, below:

Ranch Dressing:
To make this you need Milk, Wild Onion and Garlic. Craft them in the Mixer.

Dough:
This requires Flour and Milk - use the Mixer to produce it.

Mayonnaise:
Mayonaise needs Egg Whites and Wine Vinegar to be crafted together in the Mixer.

Tomato Sauce:
For Tomato Sauce, you want Heirloom Tomatoes and Wild Onion mixed in the Mixer.

Garlic Toast:
Wheat Bread and Garlic is needed here.

Croutons:
You need Wheat Bread and Black Pepper for this.

Pita Chips:
Pita and Black Pepper are required for Pita Chips.

Egg Noodles:
You require Flour and Eggs to make Egg Noodles.

Fettucini:
This needs Flour, Eggs and Black Pepper to be produced.

Rice Noodles:
Rice Noodles need Long Grain Rice and Water.

Spaghetti:
Flour and Eggs make Spaghetti.

Macaroni:
You need Flour, Eggs and Salt for this.

Lasagne Noodles:
Flour and Eggs are required.

Beef Broth:
You must use Sirloin Beef and Water to produce Beef Broth.

Chicken Broth:
To make Chicken Broth, you need Free Range Chicken, Water and Salt.

Vegetable Broth:
Wild Onion and Water is needed for Vegetable Broth.

Mild Salsa:
For Mild Salsa, acquire Heirloom Tomato and Yellow Bell Peppers.

Guacamole:
Avocado and Heirloom Tomatoes are needed.

Pesto:
Use Basil and Garlic to make Pesto.

Artisan Bread:
To produce Artisan Bread, you need Dough and Olive Oil.

Pita:
Pita needs Dough and Water.

Corn Tortilla:
Sweet Corn and Salt is required to produce Corn Tortillas.

Hollandaise Sauce:
Lemon, and Unsalted Butter is needed.

Gravy Beef:
Broth and Flour can be used to craft Gravy Beef.

BBQ Sauce:
For BBQ Sauce, use Tomato Sauce and Sugar.

Alfredo Sauce:
This sauce is made using Parmesan Cheese and Heavy Cream.

Cheese Sauce:
Cheddar Cheese and Milk creates Cheese Sauce.

Hoison Sauce:
To make this, use Long Grain Rice, Water and Black Pepper.

Soy Sauce:
Soy Beans, Water and Salt can be used to produce Soy Sauce.

Teriyaki Sauce:
For Teriyako Sauce, combine Soy Sauce and Sugar.

Marinated Beef:
Sirloin Beef, Lime and Salt is needed to make Marinated Beef.

Marinated Chicken:
Similar to Marinated Beef, Free Range Chicken and Salt is used to Marinate Chicken.

Marinated Tuna:
Tuna and Lime produces Marinated Tuna.

Steamed Vegetables:
For Steamed Vegetables, use Carrots and Russet Potatoes.

Sticky Rice:
Long Grain Rice and Water produces Sticky Rice.

Smoked Turkey:
To make Smoked Turkey, combine Free Range Turkey and Salt.

Smoked Salmon:
To smoke a Salmon, mix King Salmon with Salt.

Corn Meal:
Corn Meal is made with Sweet Corn and Water.

Herbes de Provence:
Basil and Rosemary produce Herbes de Provence.

Jerk Seasoning:
Wild Onion, Garlic and Black Pepper are mixed together to make Jerk Seasoning.

Spices:

Although it may sound as though Spices should be bundled up with all the other ingredients, certain 'Spices' are actually not used in the direct preparation of ChefVille dishes at all. These are Thyme. Using Thyme (in a humorous play on words) will speed up the time it takes for a dish complete. In fact, they can even rescue a dish that has been spoiled. They do, however, require a Cash outlay, unless you are fortunate enough to have unlocked one during a quest.

The two types of Spices are 'Instant Thyme' and 'One Hour Thyme'. They should not be confused with Salt and Pepper, also Spices, which actually have another use.

Salt and Pepper:

Salt and Pepper are almost another form of currency, although they are obviously essential in cooking. The difficulty is that you can only get them from visiting your Friends. Visit each day to get a good supply of Salt and Pepper, and try to increase the number of Friends that you have to boost it further.

Recipe List

Here you will find a list of all the ingredients required to produce some of the dishes available in ChefVille. This should hopefully save you time when preparing the dishes - removing the need for you to scroll through all of the dishes in the game.

Veggie Kebab:
You make this using the Basic Grill. It takes just 30 Seconds to produce and needs 2 Tomatoes and 2 Mushrooms to do it.

Hamburger:
Produce this on the Basic Grill. The ingredients required are 1 Sirloin Beef and 1 Wheat Bread. After 45 Seconds it will be ready to serve.

Philly Cheesesteak:
This is another item that should be cooked on the Basic Grill. Cook it for 2 Minutes using 1 Sirloin Beef, 2 Wild Onion and 1 Salt.

Grilled Steak Panini:
The Panini is grilled on the Basic Grill. It takes 6 Hours and uses 4 Sirloin Beef, 2 Wheat Bread and 5 Wild Onion.

Grilled Salmon:
The Basic Grill is where you should be cooking Grilled Salmon. You will need 12 Hours, 4 Salmon and 5 Lemon.

Meatball Sandwich:
You can make a Meatball Sandwich by using the Basic Grill. It will take you 16 hours, and the ingredients needed are 5 Sirloin Beef and 1 Tomato Sauce.

Bruschetta:
Bruschetta is baked in a Basic Brick Oven. It only takes 1 Minute, and requires 1 Wheat Bread and 2 Tomato.

Cheese Pizza:
Cook Cheese Pizza using a Basic Brick Oven. You will need to use 1 Dough and 1 Mozzarella. Let it cook for 4 Minutes.

Steak Florentine:
You can produce this using the Basic Brick Oven. Cook it for 5 Minutes using the combination of 2 Sirloin Beef, 2 Garlic and 2 Salt.

Calzone:
Calzones are baked in the Basic Brick Oven. 1 Tomato Sauce, 1 Dough and 1 Mozzarella are the ingredients to produce it. It takes 6 Hours to complete.

Focaccia:
For this you should colect 5 Wild Onions, 2 Dough and 1 Pepper. 16 Hours are required for it to be finished.

Broccoli and Dip:
You make this complicated dish at the Basic Salad Station. It is created by combining Broccoli and Ranch Dressing - one of each. 2 Minutes of effort are needed before you can serve it.

Wild Mushroom Salad:
Use the Basic Salad Station and 1 Romaine Lettuce, 1 Wild Mushroom and 2 Tomatoes to make Wild Mushroom Salad. It will take 2 Minutes.

Caprese Salad:
This is another dish prepared at the Salad Station. It takes 5 Minutes and 5 Tomatoes, 1 Mozzarella and 2 Peppers to complete.

Caesar Salad:
You will need to wait 6 Hours for this to be prepared. 3 Romaine Lettuces and 1 set of Croutons are needed while at the Salad Station to finish it.

Garden Salad:
At the Salad Station, combine 4 Mixed Greens and 2 Ranch Dressing for 12 Hours to make this refreshing salad.

Macaroni Salad:
Using the Basic Salad Station, mix 2 Macaroni and 2 Mayonnaise for 16 Hours.

Springtime Spring Roll:
This dish needs 2 Macaroni and 2 Mayonnaise. It takes 16 Hours to complete and you should use the Intermediate Salad Station to make it.

Chicken Cobb Salad:
To make Chicken Cobb Salad, you need to mix 2 Romain Lettuce, 2 Free Range Chicken, and 2 Eggs together. Do this at an Intermediate Salad Station and be prepared to wait 5 minutes.

Chicken Lettuce Wrap:
On an Intermediate Salad Station, this 6 Hour dish requires 3 Romaine Lettuces, 4 Free Range Chickens and 1 Ranch Dressing before it will be ready to cook.

House Salad:
Use 5 Romaine Lettuce, 2 Croutons and 4 Mixed Greens at an Intermediate Salad Station to make this. It will take 12 hours.

Stay-at-the-Waldorf Salad:
To make the Stay-at-the-Waldorf Salad, mix 4 Apples with 2 Mayonnaise - you will need to wait 16 hours.

Wild Onion Bisque:
At the Soup Station, use 1 Milk, 2 Onion and 1 Pepper to cook this 2-minute meal.

Chilly Gazpacho:
5 Tomatoes and 4 Wild Onions need to be prepared for 5 minutes to produce this Gazpacho at the Soup Station.

Creamy Broccoli Soup:
For Creamy Broccoli Soup, use the Soup Station and mix 3 Broccoli and 2 Milk together. It will take 6 hours. Worth the wait...

Southern Dumplin:
Another Soup Station dish here: You will need 2 Dough, 5 Wild Onion and 4 Salt to produce it, as well as 12 hours waiting time.

Classic Tomato Soup:
For everyone's favorite soup, use the Soup Station, 2 Tomato Sauce, 2 Mozzarella and 2 Mixed Greens. It will take 16 hours.

Cheesy Stuffed Tomatoes:
Use the Basic Broiler to make these Tomatoes. They will take 2 Minutes to cook and you need 2 Tomatoes, 1 Mozzarella and 1 Salt.

Quiche Barbara:
To make the Quiche Barbara, use the Basic Broiler and combine 1 Dough and 2 Egg together. It will be ready after 5 Minutes.

Garlic Cheese Bread:
This is made using the Basic Broiler. It takes 6 Hours and uses up 1 Garlic Toast and 2 Mozzarella.

Waiters

Waiters take the food off your serving counters and place it at the tables of your customers.

You will notice before too long that the speed of your service basically relies on the speed of your waiter. It is possible to glitch the waiter so that your customers effectively receive instant service. This will remove the risk of patrons leaving due to your waiter being too busy or having too far to walk.

To get this glitch to work, you first need to determine where it is that your waiter spawns each time. The best way to do this is to start the game and then see where he is standing - as there is no one to serve, the default location should be his spawn point.

With this location in mind, use serving counters to surround the spawn point on all sides. This will make sure the waiter cannot move out and serve customers of his own accord.

Next time the waiter spawns in, he will be able to reach dishes across the restaurant and serve people without having to move!

Cooking Stations

The Cooking Stations are the facilities that you must use to create your restaurant's dishes. Some of them allow you to purchase multiple versions of the same station. This will allow you to craft multiple dishes at the same time, something that is vital as you get more and more customers in your restaurants.

Below is a guide to some of the Cooking Stations on offer in ChefVille and how to unlock them:

Grill:
This is unlocked at the very start of the game and is the basic tool for cooking many of the recipes available to you.

Brick Oven:
To unlock the Brick Oven, you need to take part in the 'Inspired Italian' goal. Buying the Brick Oven is actually part of this quest.

Skillet:
To unlock the Skillet, you must reach 59 Mastery Stars.

Soup Station:
The Soup Station is fairly self-explanatory. To unlock it, you must finish the 'Comforts of Home' goal.

Griddle:
The Griddle is unlocked once you have accumulated 79 Mastery Stars.

Wok:
For cooking everything oriental, you must unlock the Wok. To get it, reach 39 Mastery Stars, at which point it will be unlocked.

Salad Station:
In order to be able to prepare the vast majority of salads known to man, you have to complete the 'Freshly Chopped' goal - you will then be able to make use of the Salad Station.

BBQ:
Everyone loves a barbeque. To unlock it for use in ChefVille, reach 90 Mastery Stars.

Broiler:
If you fancy making all the recipes that the Broiler opens up to you, collect 22 Mastery Stars.

Oven:
You might think the Oven is the most basic item in anyone's kitchen. Not so. Because of all the recipes that the Oven opens up it is given a relatively high unlock threshold of 85 Mastery Stars.

Deep Fryer:
If the Salad Station wasn't your thing, how about the Deep Fryer? Thought so. To unlock it, reach a mouth-watering 188 Mastery Stars.

Slow Cooker:
Put some food in and forget about it for hours. Anyone can use a Slow Cooker, as long as they have the requisite 207 Mastery Stars that is.

Veggimatic:
The Veggimatic unlocks at 7 Mastery Stars.

Crafting Stations

ChefVille's Crafting Stations are a lot like the game's Cooking Stations. They unlock a variety of new recipes and food items that you can then produce for your patrons. You can see a list of the Crafting Stations along with their unlock requirements, below:

Food Processor:
To unlock the Food Porcessor, for all your mixing needs, you must reach 48 Mastery Stars.

Toaster:
One might choose to question when a chef would use a toaster, but nonetheless, you can get this basic addition to your kitchen upon succesffully acquiring 12 Mastery Stars.

Bread Maker:
To get the facility to bake your own bread in your restaurant, finish the 'Bread Approaches' goal.

Mixer:
The Mixer is a must-have in anyone's kitchen. To unlock it and a plethora of recipes, complete the 'Family Style' goal and make sure you have 4 Mastery Stars.

Pink Mixer:
This acts as your second mixer and you should receive it via a new quest from Colby.

Broth Pot:
You unlock the Broth Pot by completing the 'Whiz into Action' goal. More challenging than that is actually making Broth sound appetizing to customers!

Pasta Maker:
Do like the Italians and make your own pasta. To unlock the facility to do this with the Pasta Maker, you need to complete the 'Lasagna Lead-in' goal.

Asian Sauce Station:
Essential for cooking Asian-style sauces, the Asian Sauce Station is unlocked at 147 Mastery Stars, appropriate given the masterful taste of the sauces it can produce.

Meat Grinder:
This was given automatically with the County Fair quests.

Western Sauce Station:
For all your Western Sauce-making needs, this appliance unlocks at 134 Mastery Stars.

Marinator:
Marinating food is crucial to elevating it that extra step above the rest. You can enable this with 250 Mastery Stars to unlock the Marinator.

Steamer:
To be able to steam all your food, you will need 260 Mastery Stars.

Smoker:
If steam isn't enough for you, how about smoke? Unlock the Smoker with 322 Mastery Stars.

Upgrading Stations

To upgrade a Station, click on the difficulty level e.g. 'Intermediate'. You will then be shown all the requirements to make the upgrade. Keep an eye out for the Green Arrow which appears when hovering over a certain part of the Station. This will show you the requirements too, but frequently disappears if you are not hovering in quite the right place.

Friends

You should aim to visit your Friends' restaurants as frequently as possible - once a day if you can manage it. This will enable you to collect ingredients from the dishes and food stands in their restaurants. These extra ingredients will often be things that you would otherwise be missing (like Garlic, for example, early in the game), so it is important to recognise this as another source to get them.

To recognize the areas where it is possible to collect ingredients, look out for the signs by the items. You are not guaranteed to get the ingredients - in fact, more often than not you won't get what you're after. Keep trying though, and remember that you are saving Energy by collecting ingredients in this fashion as opposed to using it back in your own area.

TIP: You can focus your Friend requests on Roses rather than ingredients if you aim to get all of your missing foodstuffs from Friend's restaurants instead.

Mastery

As you cook certain foods more and more frequently, you will earn Mastery Stars. These show your proficiency at producing particular items. Mastery Stars allow you to unlock new areas, cooking stations and complete some quests.

TIP: You should concentrate on getting Mastery Stars in the easier dishes first.

Below you can see all of the Mastery Stars milestones, as well as what you unlock with each stage:

0 Mastery Stars:
Grill Unlocked

5 Mastery Stars:
Meat Grinder Unlocked

7 Mastery Stars:
Veggimatic Unlocked

12 Mastery Stars:
Toaster Unlocked

22 Mastery Stars:
Broiler Unlocked

30 Mastery Stars:
Orange Tree Unlocked

39 Mastery Stars:
Wok Unlocked

48 Mastery Stars:
Food Processor Unlocked

59 Mastery Stars:
Skillet Unlocked

79 Mastery Stars:
Griddle Unlocked

85 Mastery Stars:
Oven Unlocked

90 Mastery Stars:
BBQ Unlocked

130 Mastery Stars:
Lemon Tree Unlocked

134 Mastery Stars:
Western Sauce Station and Apple Tree Unlocked

147 Mastery Stars:
Asian Sauce Station

156 Mastery Stars:
Deep Fryer Unlocked

188 Mastery Stars:
Slow Cooker Unlocked

207 Mastery Stars:
Marinator Unlocked

250 Mastery Stars:
Steamer Unlocked

268 Mastery Stars:
Expert Brick Oven Unlocked

286 Mastery Stars:
Expert Wok Unlocked

322 Mastery Stars:
Smoker Unlocked

Hints and Tips

Customers Won't Sit at Tables:

If you are finding that customers will not sit at your tables, therefore not earning you any income at all, make sure you have not placed any objects blocking the path into your restaurant.

Too Many Mushrooms:

If you find yourself overrun with Mushrooms, try to get to the stage where you can unlock the Veggimatic. This uses lots of Mushrooms in recipes and will soon have you clamoring after more of them! You should also try grouping them together and using shrubs, rocks and grass etc. to stop them from spreading from that one location. At the very least, this should mean you use less energy keeping them in check.

Not Enough Onions:

In contrast, it is easy to run out of Onions early in the game. The best solution to get more is to clear as much space to grass as you can, including removing sidewalks and positioning buildings together. Also, remember that you can buy Onions for 30 Hearts if you need to.

Note that there is a cap of 20 maximum Mushrooms and 20 maximum Onions growing at any one time. Check this if you are not seeing any more sprout up.

Getting More Plants to Spread:

To get more Onions and Mushrooms to spread, make sure you do not use up their last harvest. Let them regenerate repeatedly and they will spread from that one location. If you overharvest them so that they die, they will not spread from that spot.

Small Restauarants:

If you only have a small restaurant and want to economize space for your patrons, bear in mind that you can put equipment, like a second Grill, outside the restaurant!

Expanding:

Before picking a new area to expand into, check to see what it offers first. Anywhere with new resources should always be a priority.

Missing Tomato Sauce Rack:

If you are missing the Tomato Sauce Rack but are concerned because your friends have it, don't worry, you are not alone! It seems as though there is a staggered release of this so that not everyone gets it at once. You can report the issue to Zynga, but most players report it appearing after a while.

Levelling Up:

The best way to Level Up is to complete the goals that the game sets in front of you. Make sure you have as many tables and counters as possible and ensure your ingredients are always stocked up!

Instant Actions:

Like with the Waiter tip above, you can also get your chef character stuck so that all their actions happen instantly! Simply use the Modify menu upon starting a game and get them stuck in place. They will change spawn every time you return to the game, but you can just pen them in again to stop all that tiresome walking!

Cheats

Like most Facebook games, there are no official cheats for ChefVille. The game features a robust 'premium' currency system which, if Zynga allowed you to cheat to get as much Cash as you like, would become devalued. As a result, the only way to get Cash for free, which effectively enables you to 'cheat' (speeding up wait times, unlocking items ahead of time etc.), is to use the 'Earn Cash' link at the top of the screen. This gives you offers to participate in and surveys to fill out and will reward you with Cash.

If you see people claiming to have hacked ChefVille, offering to do the same for you in return for your username and password, or linking to a program to download, bear in mind that these can lead to your Facebook account being banned, losing all progress in your ChefVille game, or your computer becoming compromised.

Hearts

Hearts in ChefVille are the incentive for going to see your Neighbors and Friends in their own restuarants. Once you have made the trek to a Friend's establishment, you receive Hearts for actions like eating a meal, or picking and ingredient.

At first it can be unclear just what ChefVille Hearts are used for. The main two things are to purchase the ingredients of Wild Onions and Wild Button Mushrooms. You can, however, also purchase decorations for your restaurant using Hearts, which can go along way to making it stand out from your friends areas.

How to earn Hearts:

As explained briefly above, you earn Heart by visiting your Neighbors and performing actions for them while there. Click on a dish to eat it or an item to harvest it - you can see where this needs to be done as there will be a yellow arrow above it.

TIP: Don't be discouraged if you do not get a Heart for clicking - this does not happen one hundred percent of the time. Sometimes, you will instead receive Coins or an item, and on other occasions you will get nothing for your efforts.

TIP: There is a limit of 100 Hearts in ChefVille. This is to encourage people to visit their Friends regularly, rather than doing it all at once and never having to go again!

Recommendations and Roses

Recommendations are a unique type of currency to ChefVille. You get them when a person visiting your restaurant shows a Rose icon above their head. The only way to get Recommendations is with Roses. Once the Rose icon appears and you have Roses to use up, click on the customer in question. This will allow you to give them VIP service and thus end a recommendation in return.

Recommendations are useful because they are required to tick off certain objectives and unlock new land expansions. 

How to earn Roses:

The most obvious way to get Roses and so Recommendations, is by harvesting your Rose Stand. The Rose Stand is a unique area item that you only ever get one of - you receive it at the start of the game. Every time you harvest it, you will receive 3 Roses back. The Rose Stand takes 8 hours to refresh.

TIP: To speed up the time it takes for your Rose Stand to refresh, get a friend to visit you and have them click on the Rose Stand - this decreases the wait time required. Note that this also works for other ingredients too!

You are also able to request Roses from your Friends, which helps alleviate the issue of having to wait all that time for the Rose Stand to refresh. You can request more Roses when you have run out of them - be sure to get lots of ChefVille-playing friends signed up so you can have Roses coming in nice and quickly when you need them.

Finally, as with most things in ChefVille, you can also purchase Roses with Cash.

TIP: There is a cap on the number of Recommendations you can earn - this currently stands at 80.

Energy

Energy is vital in most Facebook games, particularly Zynga's. You will need it to collect ingredients, prepare dishes, and generally do any repetetive task in ChefVille.

How to earn Energy:

To get more Energy you have a few options. The best way to get it is by visiting Friends. The first time you visit you will get 3 Energy. Every time after that you will get 1. Note that you can only receive a maximum of 25 Energy each day (24 Hours).

Friends can also send you Energy as gifts. Go to a Friends restaurant and help them out to help facilitate this. The Energy appears in your inventory as an Energy Pack. You can also share Energy after completing quests. As you can see, Energy is very much geared towards social play and gaming with your Friends.

Finally, you can buy energy with Cash, if you are a really desperate for it.

TIP: If you wait for your Energy to regenerate, it will do so every 5 Minutes, by 1 point.